Founded in 1921 by British governor general Hugh Clifford, it was originally known as Katsina College.

My second reason was that Katsina, though it is an important town and the administrative capital of an important Emirate, is not as yet so close to the railway and to the commercial centres of Nigeria as to make it unsuitable for that quiet and tranquillity and that freedom from distractions which are so necessary for young men who are devoting their lives to study.

[3]: 28 It is Northern Nigeria's first secondary school, initially catering to children of royalty and a select few from the aristocracy.

Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, the first Premier of Northern Nigeria and an alumnus of the college, described it in his autobiography as a training ground for princes, likening it to the schools set up by the British in India.

[5] These dormitories housed up to a thousand pupils at any one time, in the vast landscape east of Tudun Wadda.